Travel Photography Tools

When you go to new destinations do you use any type of tools to see where are the most interesting photography spots or you just go there and hope to see it and discover it on your own? Travel books are great, but they usually don’t tell you where to go to take sunrise, sunset or other interesting photos. I’ve been using Flickr to see geo-tagged photos but find it not very user friendly. What about you?

Dream House

All I can say about Big Sur is that I’ll try to make sure to visit it again and I’ll recommend it to anyone else. Stunning place with stunning views. We drove south from the Pacific Grove down HW 1 to Big Sur and probably had to stop every five minutes to look at the awesome views the nature presented to us. On one of those stops I spotted unassuming house seating on the cliff and wondered what it would be to live there (mind you it probably cost only about somewhere under twenty million). Every night see some beautiful sunsets, watch whales doing their migrations, seals and otters, listen to crashing waves way below and just be part of this environment.

39 Responses to Big Sur

Actually that’s a very good question, i check with my photograhy group members in the forum. And once i get to the place, i check with the locals there for nice scenic locations. It would be great if some others share info on this. And nice picture here, as always.

I have just started playing with Trey Ratcliff’s “Stuck on Earth” app, which is focused very much on what you are looking for. I just got an iPad and haven’t had much of a chance to do more than play with it yet. Looks very cool though, and may be exactly what you are looking for.

Before I head out right now, I am trying to consult “the photographer’s ephemeris” app to determine what the sun angles are going to be, where the sun will fall behind the hills/mountains, where to get that sunset shot, etc. Combining that with Google Earth is giving me at least something.

I’m not iPad user so it is not an app for me, but I checked it out a few month back on my daughters iPad to see what functionality it provided. It was crashing when I was trying to open any photos. Good pointer to the ephemeris app, does’t look like it is available on the Windows Phone at the moment.

Ciao, great shot, great depth.Before l go somewhere new l check out the usual internet tourists guide web pages, also their photo gallery, and as Alessandro says, the postcards are often very good and can point u in the right direction. Also l’ve been known to pop into the local bookshops and quickly browse the photography books for more local info and pics for alternative views. Lynne

good point about postcards, I catch myself looking through the postcards as well, getting an idea of where are good spots. Also, I noticed that I’m looking at all the framed photos at the gift shops. They usually have most scenic spots from that area.

Dmitrii, your question made me laugh! I love your stuff precisely because you continually extract meaning, beauty and substance from views that most pairs of eyes would fail to capture. I reckon I could lock you in a broom cupboard and you’d have a cover for ‘Time’ knocked out in half an hour… 😀

haha, thanks, when ‘Time’ decides to take one of my past or future images for their cover, then we can talk about cupboard experiments… that is like winning recent 600 mil lottery, chances are none to zero

Indeed postcards are a great way to start, but isn’t the idea to get your own take on the scenery where you are? There are some photo guide books out there. I got a couple for Maine and they were spot-on. Good luck finding the perfect shot on your travels.

I’ve been thinking of this same question just recently and had read about the Ipad apps. Not having on either, I’m a bit stuck. I guess I’ll just have to go to the same place more than once (what a trial :P)

Thank you for liking my Scarborough post.
I only booked my travel ticket after flickr-ing, panoramio-ing, browse the web regarding the place to visit (mainly its tourism board). Latest details are weather report and visit online blue hour calculator. With those done, I knew what to expect, either it will be colour or grayscale photogs.

Thanks for occasionally stopping by my blog. I wanted to post in this one because of…well, the scenery of course. If you’ve done any other reading in my blog, you know I am planning on a tour of all of Colorado’s byways and well even though I live here and have driven over many of the byways, I still do my research. I not only view google maps, but then I google the town names along the route…and then I search for as many other things that relate to the route as I can…names of national forests, parks, lakes, trails, as much as I can so that I can pick and choose where I want to stop and take photos. Yes, it’s still a crap shoot when I actually get out there, but after having been travelling so much, you kind of get a ‘feel’ for things and can sense where the next best place to take that most favorite shot will be. At least, that’s how I do things. 🙂

Oh and I absolutely love the color and clarity in this photo. NIce job!

When I go somewhere, I always use a travel guide to get the lay of the land, figure out my routes and find places to stay. I also make a little list of things I would *like* to see (like Maroon Bells and Dallas Divide in the autumn in Colorado). That being said, I really am more of a “hope to see and discover something on my own” kind of person.